Detectives arrested 28-year-old Edward Curtis Menhaffy after DNA tests on clothing, left behind at a Los Angeles copper theft, pointed to Menhaffy.

“Menhaffy’s story is the classic tale of drug addict who steals to maintain his habit,” said Lt. Paul Vernon. “A decade ago, burglars like Menhaffy were rarely caught unless they left fingerprints behind.”

The home owner, who was refurbishing an unoccupied house, discovered new copper pipes cut away from the crawl space of the house in January of this year. Detectives seized clothing left behind and placed it in the queue for DNA analysis.

Detectives have solved burglaries on DNA from items as small as a cigarette butt left at the scene. The vast majority of property crimes go unsolved because they are the crimes where victims rarely see or know suspects.

Menhaffy’s Aug. 16 arrest presented the full anatomy of this copper theft: a drug addicted suspect, capering in close proximity to his home, on the hunt for an easy victim, entering an apparent unoccupied home and looking for a prize that can easily be resold for cash.